After spring break, my mom, baby sister, and brother came to visit. On our first day, I gave Sarah the camera. I'm going to ask her for commentary on the pictures and then publish it here. For now, enjoy how an eleven-year-old sees Buckingham Palace.
For my birthday dinner, we went to the Hard Rock Café, which is where I went last year. It's something that I like to do. I like to look at the instruments.
The Sex Pistols' Steve Jones's guitar, signed by all of them.
Richie Sambora's guitar. I go to Notre Dame. I was required by law to take this photograph.
Bruce Kulick of KISS and Grand Funk Railroad's guitar.
Eat yer heart out, Tarico.
This was Jimmy Page's, but the sign got stolen. D:
The harpsichord that was used in the recording of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.
One of John Lennon's jackets. And his specs. <3
One of the Ming Dynasty chairs Freddie Mercury bought after the filming of Flash Gordon was finished. Yes. That's what he bought to commemorate that movie. Ming Dynasty chairs. Multiple. Because the bad guy's name was Ming.
David Bowie's guitar from the Bridge School Concerts.
It's the axe bass!
Sad fact: I recognized this from across the restaurant. It's one of Brian May's jackets.
The ANATO gold record.
A guitar signed by all of 'em.
The guitar that started the whole shebang.
I know it's terribly touristy. But shut up, it was my birthday.
The next day, my very first activity was to go to the aquarium. Well. After tea. And breakfast. And swimming in the hotel pool. Which was very nice and not the English Channel at all. I was a bit dismayed to discover that it was now a Sea Life Centre, because those seem very touristy to me. They tend to have brightly-coloured cutouts and badly photoshopped children on their signs. But hey, world's oldest functional aquarium and you all KNOW how I feel about fish.
This submarine was a recent addition.
The fish fountain, however, was original.
They had a room full of signs that talked about the history of the aquarium. Here's how it looked in 1872.
This made me so, so, so happy. Anybody who knows me knows that I hate the idea of captive cetaceans. The UK is on the forefront of decency for whales and dolphins, with no hunting and no captive animals allowed. It's really touching that while the dolphins were a HUGE draw for this aquarium, the public was so upset about the treatment of the animals that they not only got the aquarium to stop keeping them but that they got a parliamentary ban.
The fish were all in really awesome tanks. They were new glass and environments in these beautiful old casings.
And they were HUGE! Most lionfish tanks are only the size of one of those panels.
These were cool, too. They had prints of tickets and passes from the past hanging up on the wall.
The tank environment often went all the way up to the top of the building. This was a tank of food-type fish; seabass, bream, etc.
They breed a lot of sharks and rays at the aquarium and have them on display. These are dogfish egg cases.
These next shots are often terribly blurry. This is the old dolphin tank that is now home to reef sharks and sea turtles. It's fine for them, but clearly you couldn't keep dolphins in this thing. Especially not with its round shape- that messes up their echolocation- and constant public exposure.
The boat thing below is a viewing platform to look down on the reef fish.
Welcome to Rapture.
For some reason, this tank reminded me of Andrew.
Look! Pregnant seahorse dads!
These next pictures are dark as heck but YOU GUYS I SAW ONE. I FINALLY SAW AN OCTOPUS.
IT'S IN THERE I SWEAR IT'S JUST REALLY, REALLY, REALLY DARK AAAHHHH I WAS SO EXCITED.
Like, excited to the point where I made you an incredibly dark video.
They had a really cool Giant Pacific Octopus beak on display.
Ohhhh, such a cool old ceiling.
TURTLES.
Another big picture of the aquarium in 1872.
Here's a prettier video to make up for the super-dark octopus video.
After the aquarium, I went to Queen's Park, which was really nice. I was very happy to see magnolias. They're my favourite flower.
This is the guy who made Brighton great- King George IV, the man who took three hours to put his clothes on. For dinner.
And here's Queen Vicky. Why are statues of her always of when she's old? She was so much better-looking when she was young.
I was kind of sad they had the fountain under renovation. It looks really pretty in the pictures. But, uh, EVERYBODY is gearing up for 2012.
This is a theatre and a museum. I went in and, of course, wasn't allowed to take pictures. Same with the building it was attached to. It's called the Corn Exchange.
I... have no idea why I took this picture.
Cool statue in the Theatre Garden.
Cute little sticker on a mailbox in the Theatre Garden.
Another shot of the Pavilion from the Theatre Garden.
Afterwards, I went to the market district where they had all kinds of stores. I took pictures of some of the more interesting ones.
All in all, a lovely resort. I think I'm going to go back for maybe a day or another overnight trip once it warms up and brave the English Channel again.
